Chartres, Capital of Light

Your first vision of Chartres Cathedral, a Unesco World Heritage Site, will be of its soaring towers rising out of the immense, flat Beauce Plain.

Chartres is known as capital of stained glass and of light. In summer, the city's squares, churches, monuments and fine old houses are sensationally lit up come nightfall. If you enjoy eccentric Art Brut, seek out the wacky house built by Raymond Isidore, nicknamed Picassiette; it's covered with a mass of colourful mosaics he created.